Civic and Political Participation of European Youth: Fair Measurement in Different Cultural and Social Contexts

Frontiers in Education

Sam Mejias¹  Elvira Cicognani²  Pedro D. Ferreira³  Ekaterina Enchikova³  Tiago Neves³  Veronika Kalmus⁴ 

[1] Department of Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, United Kingdom;Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy;Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal;Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia;

关键词: civic participation;    political participation;    measurement invariance;    Rasch;    DIF;   

DOI  :  10.3389/feduc.2019.00010

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Civic and political participation (CPP) is often routinely operationalized through the same questions, as can be found in many related studies. While questions can be adapted in accordance with the research purposes, their psychometric properties are rarely addressed. This study examines the potential methodological problems in the measurement of CPP, such as the conflict between construct validity and measurement invariance, as well as unequal item functioning between some groups of people. We use the Rasch model to test 18 CPP questions for their relevance for the European youth population and to study differential item functioning between groups based on (1) age, (2) gender, (3) economic satisfaction, and (4) country of living. We discovered that CPP questions are strongly connected with the cultural and social context and can discriminate against some groups of people. The results demonstrate the need to develop more culturally responsive methods to study CPP and the paper offers suggestions on how to do so.

【 授权许可】

Unknown